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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

There's just a little over a week until you have to settle on the side dishes you're cooking for Thanksgiving dinner, and to make it even harder to decide, here's another option I'm adding to our list of South Beach Diet friendly Thanksgiving Recipes. I tested several versions of this Baked Artichoke Hearts Au Gratin on my favorite contractors who are working on the new shed, and they agreed that this version was the one that's a keeper. I used a combination of Parmesan and Pecorino-Romano cheese, but even if you only had Parmesan, I'm sure this would be delicious.

I had to look at several stores to find frozen artichoke hearts, but these 12 oz. packages I found at Smith's Marketplace in Salt Lake were just right for four servings.

Thaw artichokes and then drain them well before you assemble the dish.

Grease the gratin dishes with olive oil, then arrange artichoke hearts in a single layer. I loved this in these two 7" round gratin dishes, but I made one of my test versions in an 8.5 x 8.5 inch baking dish which also was fine.

Chop up the green part of 3-4 green onions and sprinkle over the artichoke hearts.

If you have finely grated Parmesan and Romano, just mix it with the bread crumbs, dried thyme, and dried oregano. I only had the coarsely grated kind, so I buzzed it in my mini-processor to make a more finely ground mixture.

Whisk together the mayo, lemon juice, lemon zest, and garlic puree. Then mix in 1/2 cup of the bread crumb/cheese mixture. (Set aside the other 1/2 cup of bread crumb/cheese mixture.)

Spread that mixture over the top of the artichoke heart, using a rubber scraper. Cover with foil and bake at 325F/170C for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the dishes and increase oven temperature to 375F/190C. Use the rubber scraper to spread the now softened cheese/mayo mixture completely over the surface of the artichoke hearts.

Sprinkle the reserved bread crumb/cheese mixture over the top and bake about 25 minutes more.

The Baked Artichoke Hearts Au Gratin are done when the top is lightly browned and mixture is hot clear through.

Preheat oven to 325F/170C. Thaw artichoke hearts in the microwave if they're still frozen, then drain well. Cut larger artichoke hearts in half lengthwise so they're all the same size.

Use olive oil to grease 2 small gratin dishes or 1 medium sized baking dish. (I made this in an 8.5 x 8.5 inch square baking dish and also in the 2 small 7 inch round gratin dishes in the photos.) Arrange artichoke hearts in a single layer in the oiled dish, then sprinkle finely sliced green onions over the artichokes and season with salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Mix together bread crumbs, grated Parmesan cheese, grated Pecorino-Romano cheese, and dried herbs. (If the cheese isn't finely grated you might want to buzz it in a mini-processor for a minute or two like I did.) Whisk together the mayo, lemon juice, lemon zest, and garlic puree; then mix in 1/2 cup of the bread crumb/cheese mixture. Use a rubber scraper to spread this over the top of the artichoke hearts, setting aside the rest of the bread crumb/cheese mixture.

Cover the dishes with foil and bake in 325F/170C oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and increase temperature to 375F/190C. Remove foil and sprinkle the remaining bread crumb/cheese mixture over the top of each dish. Put back into oven and bake about 25 minutes more, or until the topping is lightly browned, and the dish is hot clear through. Serve hot or warm and wait for compliments!

Artichokes are a great low-glycemic choice for the South Beach Diet, but using bread crumbs makes this dish suitable for phase 2 or 3 of the diet. This is probably best as a "once in a while treat" if you're actively trying to lose weight, due to the fat content.

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Nice recipe, haven't seen Artichoke readily available in bag, here in Australia Will search it next shopping trip.We mostly get preserved in vinegar or oil in small bottles. Liked the recipe. and your blog too. :)

This looks absolutely wonderful...especially since I'm an artichoke addict!!! ;-)There is a similar recipe for baked artichokes in The South Beach Diet Cookbook(the first one). Instead of bread crumbs, they substituted ground pecans. Do you think that could be done here?

Thanks everyone for the nice feedback. James & Maria, I have that book so I just took a look at the recipe. That looks great for a phase one version something similar to this recipe, and I can't see why you couldn't use pecans in this one as well. (I actually might try the version in the SB cookbook, thanks for pointing me to it!)

The recipe looks great and I want to try it this week. Only one thing puzzles me; all together, the bread crumb and cheese mixture makes up barely one (1) cup, yet in the instruction it says to mix 1 cup with the mayonaisse mixture and reserve another cup for sprinkling over...? Either I misunderstand something or there's a typing error in the recipe.

Ea, good catch! I did get a measuring cup to measure the crumbs/cheese mixture when I was making this, but I just ground up some more to check and you're right, it should say 1/2 cup and 1/2 cup. (I'm thinking I grabbed a 1 cup glass measuring cup, thinking it was a 2 cup one but I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me just by looking at the amounts. Obviously I need to hire you as an editor! Thanks a lot, will fix in the recipe right now. Hopefully no one has printed the recipe yet; I hate it when I make a mistake like this.

Hi Kalyn! Amazing recipe!! I am trying to get all my side dishes ready the night before Thanksgiving so then I can just pop them in the oven quickly before its time to eat. Any suggestions on how I can prep this early and it still taste great? I was curious if I could just cook it up to the cheese mixture and then before hand just add the extra crumbs or would that make it soggy? I'd love to hear your input! Thanks!

Amber, I do think you could spread the mayo/cheese/crumb mixture on the artichoke hearts and cook it (and spread around the melted cheese.) Then put the foil back on and refrigerate. The next day, I would let it come to room temperature, then remove the foil and put it in the oven to heat for about 10 minutes (just until the mixture is warm) then add the bread crumb/cheese mixture and heat the final 25 minutes.

Of course I haven't tried it, but I can't think of any reason this wouldn't work.

Hope you did not print the recipe before I fixed the typo that Ea discovered, if so, please print again! (Sorry about that!)

I actually didn't like the recipe in the South Beach Cookbook. My husband & I both had a "BLECH!" reaction. Thankfully, I remembered that on of my Giada cookbooks had something similar so I whipped it out, made the changes & it was awesome. At least I thought so. My hubby could have taken or left it. :-) - Maria

Sorry Kalyn,this was not a favorite of mine,and I think I like most everything...including artichokes. I had all the indredients,so i went for it,but to me it was not satisfing,maybe I didn't add enough parma?..dunno,but I'm the only one who ate it after test/tasting,and will be eating it for the next few days. No problems here though, you do such a wonderful job most of the time I can't complain. Just felt I needed to give a honest testament from someone that's actually made it.

Hi. This looks great. I love Trader Joes' canned artichoke hearts. They're good and tender right out of the can. Since they are not frozen, how should I make this recipe? Should I reduce the cooking on the front end just to melt the cheese before spreading and by how much? I plan to make this recipe with Christmas dinner...tired of green beans! Thanks!

Since I haven't made it with canned artichoke hearts (or ever used that brand) I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly how to adapt it. I do think that there wouldn't be a huge difference since the frozen ones are thawed and drained in the recipe.

Thanks for joining the conversation! I love hearing from readers and even though I can't always reply to every comment, I will always answer specific questions on a recipe as soon as possible. Sometimes I'm answering by iPhone, so my replies may be short!

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